


Molten Earth

by shizuoh



Series: perfection and power are overrated [4]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Attempt at Humor, Bending (Avatar), Earthbending & Earthbenders, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Parenthood, Trans Kozume Kenma, Trans Male Character, bokuto is just tryin 2 help, gender-ambiguous kuroken child, lavabending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6107449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shizuoh/pseuds/shizuoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo and Kenma try to teach their child to earthbend. Bokuto is no help and Oikawa is to blame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Molten Earth

**Author's Note:**

> this is an early birthday gift from me to me thanks bby ily @me
> 
> it kinda sucks but once i started writing i couldnt stop
> 
> (fourth part of an atla au series; you don't have to read the previous parts to understand this but hey, if u want to, go ahead i ain't stoppin you)

"What if the kid is an airbender?"

"Me and Kenma are both earthbenders, Bo; obviously they're gonna be an earthbender too."

"...But I thought Kenma was a metalbender??"

"Oh my _God_ Bo they originate from the _same place._ "

Kenma sighed from his place on the couch, holding his child in his lap as they tapped away on his phone. "Kuro, my mother is from a family of waterbenders," he called in a matter-of-factly voice. "They could be that, too."

Kuroo went still, and then threw his hands over his face with a loud groan. "ALL I WANT IS A KID WITH MY BENDING ABILITIES IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK."

Bokuto snickered, taking out his phone and tapping furiously. Probably telling Akaashi all about Kuroo's antics, no doubt. Why was he even _here_ again?

"Daddy," their child said in a tiny voice, looking up at Kenma and tugging on the ends of his hair with small fingers. "Daddy, I want the pink game now." They held out the phone to him, and Kenma nodded silently before exiting the current kids-game app and scrolling the home page until he got to the app they were talking about.

When he handed the phone back to them and the music began to play, he felt eyes on him and looked up to see Kuroo and Bokuto narrowing their eyes at him.

"Please don't tell me that the 'pink game' is Love Live," Kuroo said slowly, his voice void of all emotion.

Kenma sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and glanced anywhere but him. 

"KENMA I WILL NOT HAVE MY CHILD BE CORRUPTED BY THOSE GAMES."

Bokuto decided to break things up by stepping in between the two, one of his usual goofy grins plastered across his face. He held his arms out, pushing his hand against Kuroo's chest. "Hey, hey, I came here to help my bro teach his kid how to bend!! Not to break up fights over stupid games."

"It's not _stupid_ , Uncle Kou," the child said in a hurt voice, the phone slipping in their grip and falling onto their lap. "It's fun..."

Bokuto gasped suddenly, jumping over to kneel in front of the child and taking both of their tiny hands in his large ones. "I didn't mean that you're stupid or anything!!" he assured, picking up the child underneath their arms and swinging them around. They giggled and shrieked in excitement, kicking their socked feet around and wrapping their arms around Bokuto's head to pull at his hair.

Kuroo's shoulders sunk. "Sometimes I feel like you love my kid more than me."

"I love you the most, bro," Bokuto scoffed, like it was obvious.

Kuroo tapped his clenched fist against his chest twice and pointed his finger at Bokuto, nodding his head. "Hell yeah, bro."

"You just like taking care of them, right?" Kenma guessed, and the three turned to look at him. "You and Akaashi have talked about having kids, so I've heard. Adoption is hard to come by these days."

Bokuto was quiet for a moment, and then he silently set down the child on the floor—but not without a pat on the head first. "...I guess," he finally replied, shrugging his broad shoulders. "I mean... I know Akaashi isn't really big on the whole kids idea, but... I think he wants at least one??" He bit his lip, and then his eyebrows furrowed. "I think he's afraid of screwing up."

There was a heavy silence between them for a moment, and then it was broken by the child tugging on Kuroo's shirt, silently asking to be picked up. Kuroo immediately complied, swooping them up in his arms and setting them on his hip. He wrapped one arm around them and used his free hand to pat Bokuto on the shoulder.

"Hey," he said, and smiled when Bokuto turned to him dejectedly. "Don't sweat it, man. It was the same for me when Kenma was pregnant with this little goober here." He poked the child's nose, and a fond smile formed on his face at their laugh. "We were _both_ scared, really. Kenma didn't think he could even _get_ pregnant with all the hormones he'd been taking. But, hey," he chuckled, and shrugged, "Kitten and I made it work somehow."

When Bokuto seemed to brighten a bit, Kenma walked up and awkwardly patted his arm.

"When you and Akaashi are both ready, things'll work out," he assured, smiling a bit.

"Am I gonna get a cousin?" the child chirped from Kuroo's arms, causing them all to laugh.

Bokuto nodded excitedly, and bent down a bit to be at eye-level with them. "Yeah!! And they'll be as pretty as Akaashi!! Prettier than anyone!!"

The child pouted. "They won't be prettier than me."

They all felt their hearts stop. Without a word, Kuroo furiously whipped out his phone and shot a text to the only one responsible.

_[2:32 PM] Kuroo: YOU SON OF A BITCH_

_[2:32 PM] Oikawa: whatever it was, I didn't do it_

 

* * *

 

"You learned all the basic steps of bending, right?"

The child nodded and curled their toes nervously as they sat cross-legged outside, across from both their parents. Bokuto was watching from the sidelines, stretched back against the grass and shoes cast aside. 

Kenma watched with mild amusement as Kuroo immediately shifted to his serious-captain mode, despite the fact that he wasn't even a volleyball captain anymore. He had to cover his mouth to hide his smile.

"Earthbending training is a very rigorous process, and take many years," he explained, and their child straightened their back instantaneously. "There are multiple sub-skills of earthbending, and they may be more natural, depending on what kind of bender you are." He jabbed his thumb towards Kenma. "Your daddy, here, is a metalbender. Sure, he can earthbend, but metalbending comes much more naturally to him. Always has." Then he pointed at himself. "Me? I can't metalbend. Or use any of the sub-skills either. Maybe with enough practice, I can learn, but they don't come naturally."

The child's eyes were wide and glittering with curiosity, rejecting their previous serious position and leaning in excitedly as if doing so would help them hear better.

Kuroo grinned at their enthusiasm. "You could be an earthbender, or maybe a waterbender like Kenma's family."

"I wanna be an earthbender!" they declared suddenly, smacking their hands against the ground. "I wanna do it! How do I do it?"

Kuroo gave Kenma a knowing smirk, ignoring the way the latter rolled his eyes at him. "Hold on, kiddo. You gotta learn about the sub-skills, too!"

The child paused, and then leaned back, putting on the best serious look they could manage, and nodded. 

"Alright, so," Kuroo began, subconsciously using his hands to emphasize what he was saying, "sub-skills, right? There's quite a few, but I'll only list the main ones, I guess." He held up one hand, and began counting on his fingers as he listed them out loud. "Top three: lavabending, metalbending, and seismic sense."

The child could get a good idea of the first two, but at the mention of the last one, they only furrowed their brows in confusion. "What's... 'seismic sense'?"

"Ah, it's the ability to get a good grip on the environment by feeling the vibrations in the ground." Kuroo patted the grass. "It's a skill that most deaf, blind, or mute earthbenders have, almost like their spirit made a replacement for their missing sense? Like, you use your earthbending to feel around the ground and see where you are," he made a circular motion with his hands, "and then you can see around without actually seeing... I guess? It's _kinda_ hard to explain it if you don't have it."

"Oh, okay," the child mumbled quietly, nodding once and pursing their lips.

Bokuto wiggled his toes, leaning back on his palms and letting his head roll on his shoulders. "If the kid turns out to not be an earthbender, you owe me twenty bucks!" he called, using his hand to enunciate his voice.

Kuroo rolled his eyes, waving him off, and turned his attention back to their lesson. He nudged Kenma with his elbow, breaking him away from his gaze on his phone, and whispered, "Tell 'em about metalbending."

"Oh..." Kenma said softly, and pocketed his phone. He let out a tiny sigh, and melted at the sight of his child's eyes fixed on him excitedly. "Metalbending is... the skill of bending processed metals by manipulating the traces of regular earth in them. It's impossible to do unless you're trained in earthbending first, so I doubt you'll be able do to it on your first try." Kenma bit his lip, glancing upwards as he tried to remember what he was missing. "Oh, and pure metals can't be bent, because they have no traces of earth."

The child nodded eagerly, obviously very invested. Kuroo snickered.

"And the last one, lavabending," Kuroo said, inwardly laughing at Kenma's relieved sigh when he took the reins again, "is, well, obvious. You can manipulate lava. At first everyone thought only the Avatar could do it, since it was seen as a mixture of firebending and earthbending, but then one day I guess an earthbender did it?? Not really sure how that went down." Kuroo pointedly ignored Bokuto's snort from behind him. "But anyways, it's pretty hard to try nowadays unless you live by a volcano or something, so I guess we can count that out until later."

There was a silence between them for a moment. The child glanced between their parents awkwardly, clenching their fists in their lap.

"Well, now or never!" Kuroo exclaimed, jumping to his feet and helping Kenma get up, considering he was distracted by his phone. "We're not gonna start you on training until you're a year or two older, so for now we'll see what kind of bender you are. Or..." He mumbled the last part, "If you're one at all..."

"I'm a bender! I know I am!" the child shouted, running up to him and pounding their tiny fists on his stomach. "I'm gonna be the strongest bender!! Stronger than the Avatar!!"

Kuroo grinned, ruffling his child's messy brown hair. "'Course you are, kiddo." When the child stuck his tongue out at him and pulled his hand away from their head, Kuroo motioned for Kenma to pay attention, and the two took a few steps back away from their child. "Alright, just try to feel the earth."

The child narrowed their eyes, and squatted down, patting the ground with their hands. They blinked a few times, and then looked back up at their parents.

Kuroo and Bokuto burst into boisterous laughter. Kuroo nearly fell over, clutching his sides and wheezing. Bokuto was laying back on the ground, his hands over his eyes as he laughed breathlessly. Kenma just rolled his eyes.

When the child began to look anxious, Kuroo immediately stopped, coughing a few times to hide the remaining chuckles. "N-no, I mean..." He thought for a moment, tapping his chin. "Focus on your surroundings. Focus on the ground beneath you, and channel your natural energy to do what you will."

Their child nodded slowly, and then took a deep breath. They wobbled a bit as they planted their bare feet firmly against the ground, feeling the dirt between their toes, and closed their eyes. They stretched out their fingers, all traces of worry falling from their face instantly.

There was a long, dramatic pause as Kuroo, Kenma, and Bokuto all held their breaths, watching the small child as they seemingly found their connection with the earth. Their mouth parted slightly, and their eyes opened.

Then the child broke out into a wide grin that matched Kuroo's perfectly.

"I did it!"

Just then, a tiny spurt of lava suddenly protruded from the ground, and Kuroo was rushing forward to shove his child out of the way before the lava could hit them. He stared with wide eyes, jaw dropped, and turned his head to look at the other two who were just as shell-shocked as he was.

"....Did you just _lavabend?_ " Bokuto sputtered.

The child looked around, their face settling in confusion. "I thought I moved that rock over there," they said, pointing towards a rock about the size of their hand which had, in fact, moved four inches to the left away from its previous spot prior to their attempt at bending.

Kuroo was still speechless, and he let his arms fall away from his child. "Uh..." he mumbled, not sure what to say.

Then he blinked in realization, and pulled out his phone.

_[3:12 PM] Kuroo: LEAVE MY BABY ALONE_

_[3:12 PM] Oikawa: you can't stop me_

**Author's Note:**

> this was honestly so self-indulgent im sorry


End file.
